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Tue, 26 Sep 2017 20:05:00 GMTFeedCreatorClass 1.0 dev (specificfeeds.com)Donald Trump’s highly abnormal presidency: a running guide for the week of July 17https://news.vice.com/story/trump-regrets-hiring-sessions
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Donald </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trump made it clear at the beginning of his campaign that he wasn’t going to follow the normal rules or tone of politics. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re keeping track of all the ways his presidency veers from the norm in terms of policy and rhetoric.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">See updates from early in <a href="http://news.vice.com/story/trump-is-taking-his-good-old-time-filling-key-administration-roles">July here.</a></span></em></p>
<h3><span class="day-count">Day 180 </span>July 19</h3>
<h1>Trump wishes he&#8217;d never hired Jeff Sessions</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Donald Trump sat down with the New York Times for </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-sessions-russia.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">an interview Wednesday</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and in his typical style, the president did not hold back — even when discussing members of his own administration.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In fact, if Trump could rewrite history, his administration might’ve lost one of its key figures: Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump revealed that he would have never hired Sessions for the job if he’d realized that the former Alabama senator would recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” Trump said. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sessions, who was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump, </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/top-gop-lawmaker-calls-on-sessions-to-recuse-himself-from-russia-investigation/2017/03/02/148c07ac-ff46-11e6-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recused himself</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the investigation after news broke in March that he had met with a Russian ambassador — a fact he failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation hearing. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s now heading the Russia investigation, also found himself in Trump’s crosshairs Wednesday. Trump told the New York Times that after he’d fired ex-FBI Director James Comey, he interviewed Mueller — who had previously led the FBI — for the gig. But after Trump heard he’d taken the special counsel role, “I said, ‘What the hell is this all about?’ Talk about conflicts… There were many other conflicts that I haven’t said, but I will at some point.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trump also took the time to perpetuate some falsehoods about the FBI’s origin, saying that the organization hadn’t started reporting to the Department of Justice until President Richard Nixon took office. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Out of courtesy, the FBI started reporting to the Department of Justice. But there was nothing official, there was nothing from Congress,” Trump </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-transcript.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “There was nothing — anything. But the FBI person really reports directly to the president of the United States, which is interesting.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Interesting, but inaccurate: The FBI </span><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/brief-history"><span style="font-weight: 400;">originally formed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as a task force that investigated certain cases for the Department of Justice, to which its director still reports.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If Trump isn’t careful, he may also push more than just Sessions away with his handling of Russia: Trump’s national security and foreign policy advisers are also frustrated and confused, </span><a href="https://apnews.com/4b4b7e380f204b45a8c3055a5d45255e/Trump%27s-embrace-of-Russia-making-top-advisers-wary"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the AP reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Wednesday, by the president’s refusal to take more caution when dealing with the country.</span></p>
<h1>Military’s space in Trump Tower costs taxpayers $130K a month</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">American taxpayers are shelling out over $130,000 a month for the military to lease space in Trump Tower, but the president hasn’t even spent one night there since he took office.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-militarys-space-in-trump-tower-costs-130-000-a-month-1500428508?mod=e2tw"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Wall Street Journal reports</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the White House Military Office, which helps handle the president’s vital logistics and communications equipment — plus the “football” with America’s nuclear launch codes — has leased out a 3,475-sq.-ft. space in the New York high-rise from April 2017 to September 2018, according to a contract from the General Services Administration, which negotiates office space agreements for the government.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And the space comes with a Trump-sized price tag. The 18-month lease totals $2.39 million, according to government documents obtained by the Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request. </span></p>
<p>This is well above market rate for New York—even for Trump Tower. A similar-sized unit went for half as much in 2016, according to the Journal. That makes this lease one of the most expensive rentals in one of the most expensive cities in the country.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But authorities say the money isn’t going to Trump or the Trump Organization, which owns parts of the building. The GSA lease contract redacts the name of the property owner, but the Journal reports the GSA’s lease inventory shows Joel R. Anderson as the owner. The businessman from Alabama is Trump’s neighbor in the building, and according to Anderson’s </span><a href="http://www.andersonmediacorp.com/about/management"><span style="font-weight: 400;">website</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, he’s on the board of directors for Trump Tower. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s necessary to have this military unit near the president’s residence, but even for more discretional spending on space, the Trump administration has chosen Trump-branded properties. The State Department spent over $15,000 in February at the Trump hotel in Vancouver booking rooms for members of the president’s family, who were visiting the hotel for its grand opening, the Washington Post </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-department-spent-more-than-15000-for-rooms-at-new-trump-hotel-in-vancouver/2017/07/12/5eba5d0c-61bf-11e7-84a1-a26b75ad39fe_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.1598d7eed22a"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When the president does come back to stay at Trump Tower at some point, there&#8217;s still the question of paying for security: In May, lawmakers considered </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/secret-service-trump-protection.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">allocating $120 million to cover the costs of protecting the Trump family and its home base</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in Trump Tower, following requests from city officials in New York and around the country. No word on that yet.</span></p>
<h3><span class="day-count">Day 179 </span>July 18</h3>
<h1>Special counsel Mueller is very interested in Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We think we now finally know all the people who were in the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. </span></p>
<p>Ike Kaveladze, a Russian-American vp of Emin and Aras Agalarov’s Crocus Group real estate firm, attended the meeting as the Agalarovs&#8217; representative, their attorney confirmed to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/eighth-person-in-trump-tower-meeting-is-identified/2017/07/18/e971234a-6bce-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-low_8thman-1225pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&amp;utm_term=.8232792a97ac"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Washington Post</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p>Scott Balber, the attorney for the Russian real-estate tycoons who hosted the Trump Organization’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, confirmed that someone in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office called him to ask about the identity of an eighth person in the meeting.</p>
<p>This is the first public indication that Mueller is investigating the now-infamous June 9, 2o16, meeting at Trump Tower in New York.</p>
<p>Balber said he believes that the names of everyone who attended the meeting are now public, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/eighth-person-in-trump-tower-meeting-is-identified/2017/07/18/e971234a-6bce-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-low_8thman-1225pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&amp;utm_term=.8232792a97ac"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Washington Post</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p>In 2000, Kaveladze was implicated in a <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2000/11/29/business/laundering-of-money-seen-as-easy.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">money-laundering scheme</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. He started some 2,000 shell corporations in Delaware for high-net-worth Russians and opened Citibank accounts for them, allowing them to launder funds through the American bank.</span></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the full list of the people at the meeting, as far as we know: <strong>Natalia Veselnitskaya</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who Trump Jr. was told had damaging intel on Hillary Clinton; </span><strong>Paul Manafort</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, then chief strategist for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign; </span><strong>Jared Kushner</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, son-in-law and senior adviser to the president; </span><strong>Rinat Akhmetshin</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a Soviet military vet and Russian-American lobbyist, who was looking to get sanctions on Russian officials lifted; </span><strong>Anatoli Samochornov</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a translator and former State Department employee; </span><strong>Rob Goldstone</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the Agalarovs&#8217; publicist, who sent the email telling Trump Jr. that the Russian lawyer had dirt on Clinton; </span><strong>Kaveladze</strong>; and<strong> Don Jr</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<h1>Trump lied about signing more bills than Harry Truman</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Trump </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">really</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> likes to tell people how many bills he’s signed. He does it on Twitter, in speeches, and at rallies. When he marked his first 100 days as president, Trump claimed only President Harry Truman had signed more bills (55) than he had (28) in that time period.</span></p>
<p>Now he claims to have surpassed Truman — and everyone else, too.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a “Made in America” event at the White House Monday, Trump </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-laws-bills.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news"><span style="font-weight: 400;">boasted</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">: “We’ve signed more bills — and I’m talking about through the legislature — than any president, ever. For a while, Harry Truman had us. And now, I think, we have everybody.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The problem is, Trump’s claim is </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/07/17/no-president-trump-youve-havent-signed-more-bills-than-any-president/?utm_term=.76157d96b827"><span style="font-weight: 400;">completely</span></a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-laws-bills.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news"><span style="font-weight: 400;">bogus</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Trump approaches his six-month anniversary as president, on Thursday, he has actually failed to match the 55 bills signed by Truman in his first 100 days, with Trump’s </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/signed-legislation?field_legislation_status_value=0"><span style="font-weight: 400;">current score</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> standing at 42 — 15 of which were to reverse Obama legislation and 14 that are </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-laws-bills.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news"><span style="font-weight: 400;">described</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as “routine and ceremonial lawmaking.”</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trump lied about signing more bills than any other president. (I know his lying is frequent, but it&#39;s not normal) <a href="https://t.co/m4jEllrEAf">https://t.co/m4jEllrEAf</a> <a href="https://t.co/raM3OXZGWB">pic.twitter.com/raM3OXZGWB</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) <a href="https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/887244914370727937">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>During his first six months, Jimmy Carter signed 70 bills into law, and Bill Clinton signed 50. Trump can say he’s well ahead of George W. Bush, who signed just 20, while his predecessor, Barack Obama, signed 39 — despite the fact he was dealing with a majority Republican House and Senate.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A New York Times </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-laws-bills.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news"><span style="font-weight: 400;">analysis</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of the bills signed by presidents during their first six months in office concludes that Trump is “about average” — an assessment this president is unlikely to be happy with.</span></p>
<p>Trump did give himself an out while claiming to be the most prolific lawmaking president in history, when he turned to Vice President Mike Pence and said: “I better say ‘think’; otherwise they will give you a Pinocchio. And I don’t like Pinocchios.”</p>
<h3><span class="day-count">Day 178 </span>July 17</h3>
<h1>To celebrate Made in America week, White House explains why Trump products are not</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Trump wants everyone to make American, buy American, and sell American. But neither he nor his daughter Ivanka have heeded that advice in their own businesses, leaving Sean Spicer in yet another awkward position when the White House kicked off its “Made in America” week Monday. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The point of the themed week, as the White House </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2017/07/17/made-america"><span style="font-weight: 400;">explains</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, is to honor “the incredible workers and companies who make ‘Made in America’ the world standard for quality and craftsmanship.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unfortunately neither the Trump Organization nor Ivanka Trump’s eponymous clothing line qualify — both </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-decries-outsourced-labor-yet-he-didnt-seek-made-in-america-in-2004-deal/2016/03/13/4d65a43c-e63a-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">outsource</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> work to foreign countries, and a Washington Post investigation found Ivanka’s clothing line is exclusively manufactured by foreign labor.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When asked in the daily press briefing about whether Trump products made abroad will ever be made in the U.S., Spicer demurred, saying, “It’s not appropriate for me to stand up here and comment on a business.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally, when urged for an answer on the topic, Spicer said it “depends on the product.”</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">During “Made in America” week, Spicer is repeatedly asked why Trump and Ivanka don’t make a lot of their products in the US. On Ivanka: <a href="https://t.co/1eE77u3El8">pic.twitter.com/1eE77u3El8</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Namako (@TomNamako) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomNamako/status/887024911650258944">July 17, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But Trump hasn’t been shy about flaunting his own businesses and using his own real estate to facilitate his presidential duties. In fact, Trump has spent 21 of the 26 weekends since he’s been in office at a Trump property, </span><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/17/news/walter-shaub-oge-interview/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">according</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to CNN Money. And it wouldn’t be the first time the government has gone on the record about Trump’s business — in April, the State Department released an </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/24/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-state-department-blog/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">article</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> promoting Mar-a-Lago as a “Florida retreat” and “Winter White House” for foreign leaders. The post was eventually removed over “ethical concerns.”</span></p>
<h1>Surprise — there was an eighth person at that Trump Tower Russia meeting</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">New reports indicate there was an eighth person at the now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower in New York where Donald Trump Jr. was promised possibly damaging details on Hillary Clinton.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/17/politics/donald-trump-jr-agalarov/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> CNN Monday that the new unidentified person was a U.S. citizen acting as a representative of the Agalarovs — the family who allegedly set up the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, according to a CNN report last week. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That brings the total head count in the room to at least eight, after a Russian-American lobbyist, Rinat Akhetshin, </span><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/russian-american-lobbyist-trump-sons-meeting-48635903"><span style="font-weight: 400;">revealed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> himself to the Associated Press in a story they published Friday. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Trump has continued to defend his son through a series of tweets and statements. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8220;My son is a wonderful young man,” Trump said in a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. &#8220;He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer.”</span></p>
<p>The president also added: “I think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting.”</p>
<h1>Trump is taking his good old time filling key administration roles</h1>
<p>Donald Trump has been staffing his administration at a glacial pace. But new <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-appointments.html?_r=0&amp;mtrref=undefined">research from the New York Times</a> confirms the president still hasn’t nominated anyone for 120 top positions 25 weeks into his term.</p>
<p>That means Trump has filled just 36 percent of the 188 key roles below the secretary-level ones that the Times is tracking. For comparison, Barack Obama had filled 78 percent in the same time frame.</p>
<p>While Trump’s pace is largely to blame, Senate Democrats&#8217; blocking efforts, as well as recruiting problems, have also caused some delays. By the same point in Obama’s presidency, 126 of his nominees had been confirmed, while Trump has gotten in only 33. Trump, however, is only waiting on 14 more unconfirmed nominees than Obama was by this point.</p>
<p>For example, the leading role for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the National Hurricane Center, still doesn’t have a nominee. (And we’re already more than a month into hurricane season.)</p>
<p>Read the full Times report <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-appointments.html?_r=0&amp;mtrref=undefined">here.</a></p>
<h1>Secret Service pushes back on Trump team’s defense of Russia meeting</h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">President Trump’s team just can’t seem to get their stories straight about </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/former-soviet-agent-attended-trump-jr-meeting-and-was-unimpressed"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the “nothing” meeting</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer claiming to have incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.</span></p>
<p>The latest defense of the meeting came Sunday when a member of the president&#8217;s legal team claimed there could be nothing troubling about the meeting because the Secret Service had vetted those in attendance.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in,” Jay Sekulow said on </span><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/trump-legal-team-member-jay-sekulow-latest-russia-48665310"><span style="font-weight: 400;">ABC&#8217;s “This Week”</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “The President had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That was all very well, until the Secret Service piped up with a statement of their own, directly contradicting Sekulow’s version of events. “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” the statement </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-idUSKBN1A10Q9"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trump&#39;s imbecile attorney Jay Sekulow accidently admits Trump&#39;s Secret Service was present at Russia meeting &#8211; meaning, Trump was there too.</p>
<p>&mdash; Bill Madden (@activist360) <a href="https://twitter.com/activist360/status/886683179922358272">July 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>At the time of the meeting, then Republican nominee Donald Trump <em>was</em> under the protection of the Secret Service – meaning that if he&#8217;d attended the meeting himself, those he met would have been vetted.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">With all of its phony unnamed sources &amp; highly slanted &amp; even fraudulent reporting, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fake?src=hash">#Fake</a> News is DISTORTING DEMOCRACY in our country!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/886544734788997125">July 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told </span><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/16/politics/mark-warner-jay-sekulow-donald-trump-jr/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CNN</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">he was skeptical that the president would have had no knowledge of the meeting, saying</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">: &#8220;The level of credibility from the senior level of this administration really is suspect.”</span></p>
<p>Since news broke about the meeting on June 8, the Trump administration has been attempting to get ahead of the story, claiming it did not prove collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Having initially denied ever meeting with any Russians, Trump Jr. has been forced to amend his version of events several times as more details of his meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya emerged. The latest update came Friday when it </span><a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-lawyer-brought-ex-soviet-counter-intelligence-officer-trump-team-n782851"><span style="font-weight: 400;">emerged</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a former Soviet counterintelligence officer and current Russian-American lobbyist also attended the meeting.</span></p>
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 02:00:14 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/trump-regrets-hiring-sessionsSenator John McCain diagnosed with brain cancerhttps://news.vice.com/story/senator-john-mccain-diagnosed-with-brain-cancer
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Longtime Republican Sen. John McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer, his office </span><a href="https://twitter.com/11thHour/status/887825802724880386"><span style="font-weight: 400;">confirmed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Wednesday.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Arizona senator and former Republican presidential nominee is currently recovering from a July 14 operation to remove a blood clot from above his left eye, which his doctors confirmed had been caused by a “primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma,” his office said in a statement.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">McCain, who is being treated at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, is reviewing further treatment options including chemotherapy and radiation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The Senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent,” the statement said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">McCain has repeatedly been treated for skin cancer, having had four melanomas removed: one on his shoulder in 1993; one on his left arm and one on his left temple in 2000; and one on his nose in 2002. The surgeries became a point of contention for detractors questioning his fitness as a candidate in the 2008 presidential election, though several prominent physicians </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/us/politics/20health.html?_r=2&amp;hp=&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;oref=slogin&amp;oref=slogin"><span style="font-weight: 400;">pointed out</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at the time that the greatest risk of melanoma recurrence is in the “first few years after detection.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Doctors </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/health/john-mccain-blood-clot-recovery.html?_r=0"><span style="font-weight: 400;">surveyed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by the New York Times this week said his history of melanoma could have prompted the brain scan that led to his most recent diagnosis.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">McCain’s daughter, the former political commentator Meghan McCain, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/MeghanMcCain/status/887826105352298496"><span style="font-weight: 400;">also issued a statement</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> saying she and her family are living “with the anxiety about what comes next.”</span></p>
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 00:46:56 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/senator-john-mccain-diagnosed-with-brain-cancer32 million people will lose insurance if Republicans repeal Obamacare, CBO findshttps://news.vice.com/story/32-million-people-will-lose-insurance-if-republicans-repeal-obamacare-cbo-finds
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If Congress repeals large parts of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement, 32 million Americans will lose insurance and premiums will double over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office </span><a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52939"><span style="font-weight: 400;">found</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a Wednesday report.</span></p>
<p>The unfavorable report from by the nonpartisan office arrived as Republicans are scrambling to pass any kind of health care legislation, whether by replacing Obamacare entirely or by repealing its key components. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader and Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell said he wanted to move ahead with straight-repeal legislation, but it’s unclear if that will happen — Republicans currently lack the votes needed to pass either option.</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This CBO score is an updated analysis that the office </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/what-repealing-obamacare-without-a-replacement-looks-like"><span style="font-weight: 400;">did back in 2015</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, when Congress also passed legislation that would’ve repeal Obamacare. Obama vetoed that bill, but in a </span><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/887134287350439936"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wednesday tweet</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and a </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/trumpcare-is-back-again-thanks-to-a-pep-talk-from-the-president"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thursday pep talk</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for struggling Republicans, Trump made it clear that he’s fine with signing an outright repeal.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We can repeal, but we should repeal and replace, and we shouldn’t leave town until this is complete,” Trump told Republicans Thursday. “And this bill is on my desk and we can sign it and celebrate for the American people.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are the main takeaways from this CBO report:</span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">This straight repeal would eliminate states’ expansion of Medicaid eligibility and Obamacare’s individual mandate, among other provisions, but retain regulations protecting people with pre-existing conditions and mandate that plans continue to offer specific benefits.</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">By 2018, 17 million more people will be without insurance than if the Affordable Care Act is left intact. By 2020, that number would grow to 2020.</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Should the repeal take effect, the CBO predicts, insurers will leave the Obamacare individual marketplace in droves. By 2020, half the country will be living in areas where no individual coverage options could be found. By 2026, two-thirds of the nation’s population will be living in places that lacked individual coverage plans. </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Changes to Medicaid will lead the program to lose about $842 billion in funding over the next 10 years and leave 19 million people without coverage.</span></li>
</ul>
<p>But this bill isn’t all bad news for the government: Between 2017 and 2016, the CBO predicts, federal deficits will decrease by about $1.1 trillion in total.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The CBO has not yet released a report calculating the effects of the most recent bill that proposes to replace Obamacare, which includes an amendment from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that would free insurers from having to offer only plans that comply with Obamacare rules. Supporters say that this will allow Americans to have more flexibility when choosing their healthcare plans — for example, men wouldn’t have to pay for plans offering maternity care — while </span><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jul/17/cruz-amendment-preexisting-conditions-fact-sheet/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">critics argue</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that such a bill will leave people with pre-existing conditions with “virtually no real insurance.”</span></p>
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 00:44:13 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/32-million-people-will-lose-insurance-if-republicans-repeal-obamacare-cbo-findsTrumpcare is back again thanks to a pep talk from the presidenthttps://news.vice.com/story/trumpcare-is-back-again-thanks-to-a-pep-talk-from-the-president
<p>After the Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace, and then simply repeal, the Affordable Care Act appeared to have crashed and burned on Tuesday, President Trump tried a last-ditch effort to rally GOP senators at a lunch meeting Wednesday, and it seemed to make a difference: Several attendees emerged with a renewed hope of getting something passed on healthcare next week — even if they aren&#8217;t sure what they&#8217;ll be voting on.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told reporters at the Capitol that Trump had “showed some real leadership.” Johnson said he believed “we are getting close.” </span></p>
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<p>Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who’s been undecided on the latest healthcare proposal, told reporters: “This conversation is far from over.” He added that the senators were still discussing what they’d be voting on next week: a 2015 proposal to repeal Obamacare outright with a two-year delay or the most recent Trumpcare proposal, the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Trouble is, Republicans currently don’t have the votes for either proposal.</p>
<p>Shortly after the lunch meeting, the Republicans who opposed the healthcare reform plans announced they&#8217;ll be meeting that night in Sen. John Barrasso&#8217;s office to sort out their differences and try to get on the same page before next week’s vote, <a href="https://www.axios.com/gop-health-care-holdouts-to-meet-tonight-to-work-it-out-2462125075.html">Axios reports</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trump&#8217;s optimistic and insistent tone helped spur the action. He kicked off the meeting by telling the assembled senators and reporters that his goal was still to repeal and replace Obamacare, which he called “a big lie.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We can repeal, but we should repeal and replace, and we shouldn’t leave town until this is complete, and this bill is on my desk and we can sign it and celebrate for the American people,” he said during the lunch, referring to the August recess coming up. (Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had already canceled the first two weeks of the recess to tackle not only healthcare reform but also tax reform and raising the debt ceiling.) </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But even with a late show of optimism from Trump, dissent within the Republican ranks leaves them unable to pass any healthcare reform legislation, for now. The president has been criticized for his lack of engagement with the repeal-and-replace push, and as recently as the last 48 hours, vacillated on the approach he favored for Republicans. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Late Monday night he tweeted that Republicans should just repeal Obamacare:</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now &amp; work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/887134287350439936">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Hours later, early Wednesday morning, he claimed to have “always said” that Obamacare should be allowed to fail before its replacement is drawn up.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/887280380423938048">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Still, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas left the meeting saying there is a “renewed commitment” to repealing Obamacare, a sentiment echoed by other Republicans. “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The gap has been closed in terms of member objections, but we aren’t there yet,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in a statement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">McConnell is continuing to push ahead with a vote scheduled next week — even though he doesn’t have the votes to do it. When three Republican senators, </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/republican-women-killed-the-obamacare-repeal"><span style="font-weight: 400;">all women</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — stated publicly yesterday that they wouldn’t support the repeal bill, the Republicans, with only a two-seat majority in the Senate, no longer had the votes needed to pass it. And four senators have said they won’t vote for the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Plus, Sen. John McCain is still absent following surgery to remove a blood clot and Republicans will almost certainly need his vote to pass anything. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At the lunch meeting, Trump also touted exaggerated stats about the Republican healthcare plan. “Premiums will drop 60 and 70 percent,” he said. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that under the Republican plan premiums will drop 20 percent by 2026.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trump also singled out Heller as he attempted to rally the senators. “The other night I was very surprised when I hear a couple of my friends — my friends,” Trump said, motioning toward Heller, continuing: “They were and are [my friends]. They may not be very much longer, but that’s alright,” he added with a chuckle. </span></p>
<p>“He wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?” Trump said, again referring to Heller. “And I think the people of your state, which I know very well, I think they’re gonna appreciate what you hopefully will do.”</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If that sounds like a threat, it might actually be one. A Trump-affiliated super PAC announced, and </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/17/politics/trump-jeff-flake-arizona-primary/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">then withdrew</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a major campaign ad buy against Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake. White House staff are reportedly speaking with </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/17/politics/trump-jeff-flake-arizona-primary/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">potential candidates</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to run against the senator from Arizona. </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 21:18:57 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/trumpcare-is-back-again-thanks-to-a-pep-talk-from-the-presidentWeed is now legal in an entire country for the first timehttps://news.vice.com/story/recreational-marijuana-is-now-legal-in-uruguay
<p>Uruguay has become the first country to fully legalize the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana. The law, which was initially passed in 2013, finally went into effect on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The weed, however, isn’t very strong. Uruguay is offering two different strains, dubbed Alpha 1 and Beta 1. Both have a THC content of just 2 percent, much lower than the levels found in legal recreational weed in the U.S. In Colorado, recreational marijuana contains an average of 18.7 percent THC; in Washington state, it’s 16 percent. The Uruguayan government is also putting a strict quota in place, limiting the amount of weed a customer can purchase.</p>
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<p>Regardless, the move could make Uruguay a model for other countries looking to change their drug policies.</p>
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Wed, 19 Jul 2017 20:36:43 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/recreational-marijuana-is-now-legal-in-uruguaySix months after a deadly mass shooting, this Quebec City mosque is receiving a flood of hate mailhttps://news.vice.com/story/six-months-after-a-deadly-mass-shooting-this-quebec-city-mosque-is-receiving-a-flood-of-hate-mail
<p>The Quebec City mosque that was the target of a mass shooting last January will boost security after a flux of “hateful messages.” And while they report receiving one or two pieces of hate mail per week, one of the most aggressive ones arrived last week.</p>
<p>The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec received a package on Friday containing a defaced Quran and a note suggesting the community use a hog farm as a cemetery.</p>
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<p>The package arrived two days before a controversial referendum in a nearby town rejected a plan to build a long-sought Muslim cemetery.</p>
<p>The note reads: “You’re looking for a cemetery to bury your dirty carcasses? Then here is an ideal place for you. It will smell like pork anyway.” Last year, a pig’s head with a note that read “bon appétit” was found outside the mosque.</p>
<p>A group that campaigned aggressively against that cemetery say they had nothing to do with the defaced Quran.</p>
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<p>While Friday’s package might be the most aggressive message the mosque has received in recent months, the centre’s president Mohamed Labidi says the hate mail has become increasingly common — he told VICE News that the mosque receives one or two hate messages per week.</p>
<p>“We have received a lot of messages like ‘go to your home, you’re not safe here,’” he added. “There is some fear. We try to calm our community to pass through these difficulties … and to fight together to eradicate racism and xenophobia.”</p>
<blockquote class="large-quote "><p>
She hopes that authorities will “take things seriously this time.” </p></blockquote>
<p>The mosque was the scene of a deadly mass-shooting last January, when a gunman opened fire at the end of evening prayers, killing six. Alexandre Bissonnette is set to stand trial for the shooting. He was arrested near the scene of the shooting after reportedly confessing to the crime on the phone to police. His social media presence suggests an affinity for right-wing and far-right causes.</p>
<p>Members of the Quebec Muslim community have increased concern about their safety at the mosque. Labidi said the mosque will be working to implement more security at the front doors and aim to finish in three to four months.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the Islamic Cultural Centre called on worshippers to “remain vigilant and to report to the police and the centre any suspicious threats or behaviour,” on the centre’s Facebook page on Wednesday.</p>
<hr />
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<hr />
<p>Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard denounced the “coward” who sent a defaced Quran and a note suggesting a hog farm be used as a Muslim cemetery to the mosque.</p>
<p>“These are Quebecers who are Muslim and no one deserves to be treated in that manner,” Couillard told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s a cowardly act. Someone anonymously delivers a hurtful document to the doors of the Quebec City mosque. That person is a coward.”</p>
<p>Members of the group commented on the post that they are shocked by the “vicious” behaviour and that there should be severe punishment for such an act. One member wrote she hopes that authorities will “take things seriously this time.”</p>
<blockquote class="large-quote "><p>
Labeaume told CBC that the referendum results were “sad” </p></blockquote>
<p>According to CBC, Quebec police are currently investigating who is behind the package sent.</p>
<p>La Meute, a far-right Facebook-based group prominently known in Quebec for its anti-Islam stance with more than 40,000 members, denied any affiliation with the note sent to the mosque on Friday.</p>
<p>La Meute national spokesperson Sylvain Brouillette told VICE News that the group doesn’t “stoop down to that kind of stupid action.” He added that they aim to fight for democracy and fundamental rights.</p>
<p>“This gesture is cowardly and disgraceful, this is not our approach and we strongly condemn this type of action.”</p>
<p>When asked whether he believes the group’s discourse promotes this kind of action, Brouillette said it’s not their action that encourages it, but the media’s portrayal of La Meute as “a group of hateful and racist extreme right radicals.”</p>
<p>Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume committed to getting the cemetery approved after the shooting in January. It was to be built in Saint-Apollinaire, a small municipality southwest of Quebec City. Citizens of the small town — at least those who voted — narrowly voted to reject the cemetery.</p>
<p>Labeaume told CBC that the referendum results were “sad” due to the majority of eligible voters staying silent in a province-wide matter. Just 36 residents voted in the referendum — 19 against, 16 in favour.</p>
<p>Couillard dismissed criticism of the provincial government not getting involved in the referendum, but added that the province will now aim to find a solution to the lack of burial space for the Muslim community in Quebec. He said the government’s decision to not influence voters was due to the fact that there were so few registered voters, that it “didn’t seem like a good idea.” He added the government would soon sit down with Muslim community members to find a solution.</p>
<p>No specific agenda was mentioned on how the province plans to combat this issue.</p>
<hr />
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 20:32:27 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/six-months-after-a-deadly-mass-shooting-this-quebec-city-mosque-is-receiving-a-flood-of-hate-mailPalestinians spying for Israel risk execution by Hamashttps://news.vice.com/story/palestinians-spying-for-israel-risk-execution-by-hamas
<p>Spying for Israel is perhaps the most shameful act of treason a Palestinian can commit. And yet, a network of hundreds of Israeli “collaborators” within the Gaza Strip forms the backbone of Israel’s security operation against its most hostile and troublesome neighbor.</p>
<p>After the assassination of a top Hamas official by suspected Palestinian informants for Israel, Hamas’ long and intense operation to root out spies has escalated.</p>
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<p>What causes Palestinians in Gaza to commit this treachery? For a few, it’s ideological. But for many, Israel’s blockade of Gaza has left them with little choice: Betray your nation and risk execution by Hamas, or face unendurable loss or humiliation at the hands of Israeli security forces.</p>
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<p><em>This segment originally aired July 18, 2017, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.</em></p>
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Wed, 19 Jul 2017 20:31:31 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/palestinians-spying-for-israel-risk-execution-by-hamasSpent Part Twohttps://news.vice.com/story/spent-part-two
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<p>Despite healthy economic growth in Canada’s major cities, it’s only a handful of industries that are really flourishing, leaving even those working in essential civil services struggling to afford the cost of living. In this episode of Spent, host Kourosh Houshmand meets three different people working in three very different industries to see the disparity between old, institutional, and contemporary industries.</p>
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Wed, 19 Jul 2017 20:13:16 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/spent-part-twoTrump stops by voter fraud meeting he’s not supposed to influencehttps://news.vice.com/story/trump-stops-by-voter-fraud-meeting-hes-not-supposed-to-influence
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first meeting of President Donald Trump’s voter fraud task force featured a surprise guest: President Trump. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While federal law dictates that the commission shouldn’t be influenced by the president, Trump’s visit was largely ceremonial. His remarks, however, raised the curtain on Wednesday’s meeting and contradicted comments from commission co-chairman </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vice President Mike Pence about the “fact-finding” goals of the bipartisan group.</span></p>
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<p>Since his election, Trump has made no secret of his belief that 3 million to 5 million “illegals” voted, which he has repeatedly claimed cost him the popular vote. During his brief remarks, Trump reiterated the claim, with some heavy innuendo.</p>
<p>Voter fraud, he said, is carried out by “some large numbers of certain people, in certain states.” And as for the 14 states that are refusing to comply with the voter data request from Kris Kobach, the commission&#8217;s deputy chairman, Trump said: “For those that don’t want to share, what are they worried about?&#8230; There’s something. There always is.”</p>
<p>But according to Pence, the commission is a bipartisan group of “fact finders” who haven’t made up their minds about whether voter fraud is a problem. During the meeting Wednesday, he said the group had “no preconceived notions or preordained results.”</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the other hand, Trump — who touts his devotion to preserving the “sacred integrity of the ballot box” — didn&#8217;t appear particularly open to the possibility that voter fraud is not a widespread issue. (That’s the view held by election experts across the board; according to a </span><a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud-myth"><span style="font-weight: 400;">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the Brennan Center, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than voter fraud to happen.)</span></p>
<p>“I look forward to the findings,” Trump said. “The full truth will be known and exposed, if necessary, in the light of day.”</p>
<p>In light of Trump&#8217;s comments, Justin Levitt, elections expert at Loyola Law School, isn’t buying the fact-finding mission that Pence described.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The president came out and announced his firm and unshakeable belief that individuals were voting illegally in large numbers,” said Levitt, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">who served as deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “This is a commission that was set up from the get-go to find facts to fix their pre-ordained conclusions.” He also noted that, despite the attention paid to bipartisanship, the first four speakers at the meeting were Republicans. And Kobach, a diehard voter fraud truther, is leading the commission.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC">@KatyTurNBC</a> to Kris Kobach: Are you saying Hillary Clinton didn&#39;t win the popular vote?</p>
<p>Kobach: &quot;We may never know the answer&quot;</p>
<p>&mdash; Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/mmurraypolitics/status/887745357899337728">July 19, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Of the 12 members of the commission, five are Democrats, including Alabama probate judge Alan King and New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner.</p>
<p>“I informed them that there was not any voter fraud in Jefferson County, and there has not been any voter fraud for 30 years or more than that,” said King, who also underscored states’ need for more money to upgrade aging voting technology.</p>
<p>The commission is off to a rocky start as the target of seven federal lawsuits and concerns from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about its intended effect on voting rights.</p>
<p>“Given [Kobach’s] history, I would expect a process where all views are not given robust consideration,” Levitt said. “Regardless of what individual commissioners think, if they say things that align themselves with Kobach’s beliefs, I’m sure he’ll be all too willing to cite them.”</p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 19:00:00 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/trump-stops-by-voter-fraud-meeting-hes-not-supposed-to-influenceJeff Sessions just made it easier for the cops to take your stuffhttps://news.vice.com/story/jeff-sessions-just-made-it-easier-for-the-cops-to-take-your-stuff
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Starting Wednesday, local police will be able to take cash and property from suspected criminals under federal law before they are convicted of a crime, even if state laws prohibit the practice.</span></p>
<p>The new rules will allow local police to seize the assets of suspected criminals even if it’s prohibited under local law, provided they get permission from federal authorities. This type of “civil asset forfeiture” was banned under the Obama Administration, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions is bringing it back, with a vengeance.</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a speech Wednesday, Sessions introduced his new policy, reversing a </span><a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-prohibits-federal-agency-adoptions-assets-seized-state-and-local-law"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2015 reform</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder, that scaled back the practice. It means local law enforcement will be able to seize the assets of suspected drug dealers, with permission from the DEA.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a Senator, Sessions opposed Eric Holder’s reform, </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/04/15/grassley-clashes-with-police-association-over-controversial-asset-seizures/?utm_term=.d620d093dea4"><span style="font-weight: 400;">calling</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> it a “huge detriment” to local law enforcement. Thirteen states have laws against seizing and forfeiting assets without a conviction, including Oregon, Missouri and and New Mexico, according to the Institute for Justice.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/texas-controversial-law-enforcement-tactic-is-uniting-lawbreakers-and-conservative-politicians"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Local police say</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> civil asset forfeitures are an effective tool to combat drug crimes, especially those involving cartel networks, allowing local law enforcement to seize the proceeds of drug deals or possessions like cars or homes. But a March 2017 Inspector General </span><a href="https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2017/e1702.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> found that the Department of Justice lacks data that shows asset forfeitures aid in criminal investigations.</span></p>
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<p>Federal prosecutors across the country cheered the announcement Wednesday. “The new policy recognizes the important role asset forfeiture plays in depriving criminals of the lifeblood that drives criminal organizations,” the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys said in a statement.</p>
<p>But Freedom Partners, a political group backed by Koch Industries, called the new policy “unjust and unconstitutional.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Koch group: DOJ Expansion of Asset Forfeiture Unjust and Unconstitutional <a href="https://t.co/a5fU96JjqL">pic.twitter.com/a5fU96JjqL</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/887750535541116929">July 19, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Many Republicans in Congress, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, supported the 2015 reform limiting forfeiture.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’re going to have a fairer justice system because of it,” Grassley </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/holder-ends-seized-asset-sharing-process-that-split-billions-with-local-state-police/2015/01/16/0e7ca058-99d4-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html?utm_term=.6820d29508f1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told the Washington Post in 2015</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “The rule of law ought to protect innocent people, and civil asset forfeiture hurt a lot of people.”</span></p>
<p>According to the Inspector General, the DEA seized more than $3 billion worth of assets without obtaining convictions from 2007 through 2016. Annual DEA seizure amounts were cut by more than one-third after the 2015 reform.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senator Mike Lee, a member of the Judiciary Committee, released a statement Wednesday opposing Sessions’ new policy. “Instead of revising forfeiture practices in a manner to better protect Americans’ due process rights, the DOJ seems determined to lose in court before it changes its policies for the better,” Lee </span><a href="https://twitter.com/SenMikeLee/status/887715975763820544"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is Sessions’ second direct about-face on an Eric Holder policy; the first was a </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/jeff-sessions-launches-war-on-drugs-2-0-with-new-mandatory-minimum-policy"><span style="font-weight: 400;">May reversal</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of Holder’s mandatory minimum sentencing reform.</span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 18:47:27 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/jeff-sessions-just-made-it-easier-for-the-cops-to-take-your-stuffThe cost of summer music festivalshttps://news.vice.com/story/the-cost-of-summer-music-festivals
<p>Summer can be expensive business, if you’re not careful. The temptation to spend hours-on-end outdoors, whether it’s grabbing an after-work drink, hopping from one new patio to another, or going away for the weekend is costly, to say the least.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And then you have the concert and festival circuit — every summer, the biggest names in the music business descend upon major North American and European cities in the name of entertainment (and to rake in millions of dollars at our expense). </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Toronto alone, there are at least 40 music festivals in the four-month period between May and September. Quite a few of these festivals, like Dreams, VELD and Drake’s OVO Fest attract festival-goers from across the country and south of the border, many of whom are willing to splurge thousands of dollars for the festival experience — from tickets and accommodation, to booze and after-parties.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">VICE Money made a quick pit stop at the Bud Light Dreams Festival (formerly known as Digital Dreams), a two-day electronic music fest held at the shores of Lake Ontario to get a sense of just how much avid festival-goers spend on the festival circuit, in any given summer. </span></p>
<p><strong>Zach; Burlington, Ontario </strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“My girlfriend and I go to about </span><strong>six to seven festivals</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> every year, mostly in Toronto and Montreal. I think we spend </span><strong>$4000 &#8211; $5000</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the entire summer on festivals. We just love heavy dubstep and we don’t get a chance to hear that kind of music in Toronto often, so I guess it’s cheaper to come to a festival like Dreams than take a flight to the U.K. to see our favourite dubstep artists.” </span></p>
<p><strong>The Rough Breakdown</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Festival tickets: $1000 </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alcohol: $250 per festival x 6 = $1500 per summer</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Uber rides (Burlington-Toronto-Burlington): $100 x 5 = $500</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Accommodation in Montreal: $300</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Transport to Montreal via train: $300</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Food: $400 &#8211; $600</span></p>
<p><b>TOTAL: $4000 &#8211; $4200</b></p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Daniel; Barrie, Ontario</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I try to go cheap when I do festivals. I do about </span><strong>three to four festivals</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">, I don’t get VIP tickets, and all of them are in Toronto. My biggest costs are water and alcohol — it’s important to hydrate. I bring my own food to munch on, maybe I’ll grab a two-dollar hot dog from a stand outside the festival grounds. So I guess I try to not spend more than </span><strong>$1000</strong> <span style="font-weight: 400;">overall.” </span></p>
<p><strong>The Rough Breakdown</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Festival tickets: $400 </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Water: $100 &#8211; $150</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Transport (Daniel crashes at his friend’s place in Toronto): $150</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alcohol and after parties: $300 </span></p>
<p><strong>TOTAL: $950 &#8211; $1000</strong></p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Aaron, Brandon, Zack, Brad; Buffalo, New York</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We aren’t huge festival goers, but we like to come to maybe </span><strong>one or two</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to party. Usually we go to something nearby that we can drive to like Bunbury (in Ohio) or Dreams or Veld here in Toronto. It’s cheaper because there are four of us and we split the cost of everything… and we drink beer. So that’s cheap. So maybe we spend </span><strong>$500</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> per person overall.” </span></p>
<p><strong>The Rough Breakdown</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Festival tickets: $200</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Transport: $80</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Airbnb: $100</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alcohol/food: $200</span></p>
<p><strong>TOTAL: $580/person</strong></p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Mike; Toronto</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I don’t do Toronto festivals much anymore, I used to do them when I was younger. I go for the big ones now, last year I was at EDC in Vegas (Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas) and that alone cost me about <strong>$4000</strong>. But it was worth it. I would spend the money again.” </span></p>
<p><strong>The Rough Breakdown </strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Return flight to Vegas: $800</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">EDC three-day VIP Pass: $880 (priced at USD$699)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alcohol for three days, at $10/drink: $600</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Accommodation at a hotel on the Strip: $800</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Food and after parties: $1000</span></p>
<p><strong>TOTAL: $4080</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">***</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.twitter.com/vanmalas"><b><i>Follow Vanmala on Twitter</i></b></a></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 18:03:25 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/the-cost-of-summer-music-festivalsEurope’s alt-right is chartering a boat to stop migration to Italyhttps://news.vice.com/story/europes-alt-right-is-chartering-a-boat-to-stop-migration-to-italy
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A European alt-right group is taking to the Mediterranean in a bid to stop illegal migrants crossing from Libya – a move NGOs fear could usher in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/story/we-cant-do-this-forever-at-sea-with-migrant-rescuers"><span style="font-weight: 400;">humanitarian rescue teams</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mission, known as “Defend Europe,” is the project of the </span><a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/6/15804196/generation-identity-identitarians-alt-right-migration-islam-refugees-europe"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Identitarians</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a right-wing pan-European movement opposed to immigration – particularly Muslim immigration – on the continent. Founded in France in 2002, the youth-dominated Identitarians have developed a reputation as the hipsters of the far-right, noted for their slick social media campaigns and attention-grabbing political stunts, such as occupying a French </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spTr0L2G9yM"><span style="font-weight: 400;">mosque</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For their latest campaign, the group has crowd-funded more than $100,000 to charter a 40-meter ship, the “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33kLUdaxKw"><span style="font-weight: 400;">C-Star</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,” to take direct action against humanitarian NGOs operating search-and-rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean.</span></p>
<p><strong>“A ferry service”</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Identitarians blame the rescue boats for encouraging the rising numbers of illegal migrants arriving from Libya into Italy, which has overtaken Greece as the main arrival point into Europe. So far more </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40491497"><span style="font-weight: 400;">85,000 illegal migrants</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the majority from sub-Saharan Africa, have arrived on Italy’s shores this year – 20 percent more than the same period in 2016.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">About </span><a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/Annual_Risk_Analysis_2017.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">40 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of arrivals are brought to Italy through search-and-rescue missions run by humanitarian organizations. This has prompted accusations – particularly in Italy, carrying the burden of the migration wave – that the NGOs are creating a pull factor by effectively offering a “ferry service” to Europe once the smugglers’ boats founder.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Italian prosecutors have </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy-ngos-idUSKBN1862BI"><span style="font-weight: 400;">opened</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> investigations this year into whether there is cooperation between NGOs and human traffickers, and Rome has just drafted a </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy-idUSKBN19Z14W?il=0"><span style="font-weight: 400;">code of conduct</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for charities operating in the Mediterranean, banning them from contacting smugglers by phone or firing flares, which might function as a signal to the smugglers.</span></p>
<p><strong>Documenting the journey</strong></p>
<p>Humanitarian organizations reject such allegations, insisting they are doing vital work to save lives on a stretch of sea that has become one of the world’s biggest unmarked graves. More than 5,000 people died attempting to cross the Mediterranean last year, and more than 2,150 have perished so far in 2017.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Defend Europe says its mission is to document the activities of the NGOs, expose any collusion with the traffickers, and intervene if they act illegally. Eleonora Cassella, a member of Defend Europe based at the mission’s headquarters in Catania, Italy, told VICE News that the crew would try to gather evidence to prove their suspicions that NGOs collude with the human traffickers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The more people try to go, more boats from Europe come to take the people, so even more people try to get to sea because they know that even with small boats, they’ll come to help them,” she said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">During the group’s fundraising efforts, Defend Europe pledged to “block” the rescue boats – something they attempted during an earlier </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JZHJrJjmnY"><span style="font-weight: 400;">mission</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in May, when a group of flag-waving activists in a dinghy tried to harass a much larger rescue boat leaving Catania for Libya. But the group has now walked back its vow to block the boats, saying that although it would tail the vessels, it won’t try to interfere with their activities.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For now, we want to understand how they do it, how they talk with human traffickers, how they react when they see human smugglers,” said Cassella.</span></p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f1ec-1f1e7.png" alt="Wed, 19 Jul 2017 15:57:07 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/europes-alt-right-is-chartering-a-boat-to-stop-migration-to-italyIf you’re flying to America, you’ll need to get to the airport another hour earlierhttps://news.vice.com/story/if-youre-flying-to-america-youll-need-to-get-to-the-airport-another-hour-earlier
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nobody is quite sure what they are, yet, but new airport security measures take effect today which will lengthen security screening times for passengers headed to the United States.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Department of Homeland Security announced last month that it would be upping security measures for airports in 105 countries with direct flights to the U.S., including passenger screening, checks on personal electronics, and checks of airports and airplanes themselves.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What exactly that means, however, remains to be seen.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It seems that the new delays will be aimed at larger electronic devices.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A press release from Canadian airline Westjet warned anyone travelling with a device larger than a cellphone that there would be more screening measures for laptops and tablets.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dionisio D’Aguilar, tourism and aviation minister for the Bahamas, told a local newspaper that delays due to screening may only get worse.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are now at two hours, that may go up to three or even a little more. We are not 100 percent sure at this time and we know that it is going to be a little rocky in the beginning,” D’Aguilar said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has pegged the new measures to credible threats to American airlines by terrorist groups. Similar intelligence appears to be behind his decision to ban laptops and larger electronic devices from carry-on luggage for flights originating from a handful of Middle East countries — a ban that is </span><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/US-ends-laptop-ban-on-Middle-Eastern-airlines-499986"><span style="font-weight: 400;">now effectively over,</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as those countries have implemented new electronic screening procedures.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In justifying the new measures, Kelly told a security conference in late June that terror groups see American aviation as a “crown jewel.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Homeland Security says the new measures will stay in place “until the threat changes.”</span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 15:39:56 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/if-youre-flying-to-america-youll-need-to-get-to-the-airport-another-hour-earlierCanada isn’t keeping track of suicides in Indigenous communitieshttps://news.vice.com/story/canada-isnt-keeping-track-of-suicides-in-indigenous-communities
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Canada does not have a complete picture of the suicide crisis among Indigenous communities, with neither the federal government nor the largest organization representing First Nations keeping track. And while Canada&#8217;s health minister says it would be helpful to have exact numbers on the epidemic, she says it’s not a top priority as First Nations continue to grapple with new tragic instances of youth taking their own lives. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I would say certainly, ideally it would be helpful to know and it’s something that we need to work toward,” Jane Philpott, the federal health minister, said in an interview with VICE News. She said that the topic of data collection on the crisis has come up during her meetings with First Nations leaders, but it isn’t being pursued at this point. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Obviously [a] big priority for leaders in the communities is getting at the root causes of why their young people have lost hope. And there’s so much work to be done just in terms of addressing issues of justice and social equity,” she said. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">No federal agency, nor the Assembly of First Nations, an advocacy group representing nearly one million First Nations peoples across the country, are keeping count of the suicide deaths. A number of other First Nations organizations in other provinces did not immediately respond to requests for numbers, while a spokesperson for the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia confirmed that it also does not maintain data on the issue there, but has “a data access request underway” for the information.</span></p>
<blockquote class=" "><p>
“Obviously [a] big priority for leaders in the communities is getting at the root causes of why their young people have lost hope.&#8221; </p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the only organizations that’s keeping real time data on the issue is the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations communities in northern Ontario, and which has been hit hard recently. F</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">our youth from the fly-in Pikangikum First Nation have died by suicide in the past two weeks, while Wapekeka First Nation has lost three 12-year-old girls to suicide so far </span><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/06/14/wapekeka-first-nation-mourns-suicide-of-third-12-year-old-girl-this-year.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">this year</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A NAN spokesperson told VICE News it has counted 22 suicide deaths so far in 2017, including from Pikangikum and Wapekeka, for a total of 543 since it began keeping count in 1986.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are many factors that make it difficult to collect death and suicide data on a national level as it relates to ethnicity. Health Canada wrote in an email that while it receives and responds to reports from nursing stations in First Nations, it’s unable to systematically track suicides rates in the communities for a number of reasons including the fact that</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the reporting of suicide attempts or suicides is not legally mandated under provincial public health legislation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Philpott, like countless First Nations, Métis, and Inuit leaders, </span><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/07/18/canada-committed-to-improving-mental-health-in-indigenous-communities-philpott.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">links</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> high suicide rates and the many other ongoing health crisis on reserves to the abusive legacy of the government’s residential school regime and other colonial structures.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The amount of work that needs to be done on reconciliation and addressing social determinants of health is what we are hearing from communities as their top priorities,” Philpott explained.</span></p>
<blockquote class=" "><p>
Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations communities in northern Ontario, has seen 22 suicides so far this year. </p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The disproportionate rates of suicide among First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples compared to non-Indigenous people in Canada has been </span><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/a-suicide-crisis-in-canadas-unforgiving-north"><span style="font-weight: 400;">well-documented</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — suicide rates among Inuit communities can range from six to 25 times higher than the general population.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An AFN spokesperson pointed to a June 2017 </span><a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/INAN/report-9/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by the federal standing committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs that lists a number of recent reports of suicides within Indigenous communities, but not a total tally. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the 2017 report entitled </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Breaking Point: The Suicide Crisis in Indigenous Communities</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, data on suicide rates, in general, are likely an underestimation because of inconsistent reporting practices. For example, where deaths are categorized as accidents and not suicides due to misinformation or stigma. It’s also not required to report ethnicity on death certificates. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As such, these results cannot be compared, making it challenging to provide comprehensive statistical trends across all Indigenous communities,” the report states.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Statistics Canada does release numbers on general deaths and suicides across Canada, however they&#8217;re often years out of date. The deaths and suicides reports are based on data it gets from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database, which is a collection of death information compiled annually from every provincial and territorial vital statistics registry. There is typically not a mechanism in these registries to identify ethnicity.</span></p>
<blockquote class=" "><p>
There are many factors that make it difficult to collect death and suicide data on a national level as it relates to ethnicity. </p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A 2009 Statistics report found there were 3,890 suicides in Canada — a rate of 11.5 per 100,000 people. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mohan Kumar, a Statistics Canada research analyst from the department’s social and aboriginal statistics division, said its most recent publicly available data on the issue is based on data from 2005 to 2007. Papers released this year found that there were 56 deaths by suicide among female children and youth in “high-percentage First Nations identity areas” in Canada, which could include people living both on and off-reserve. That averaged out to 25.5 suicides per 100,000 people. And the rate was higher among male children and youth in areas identified as predominantly First Nations: 62 deaths by suicide during those two years for a rate of 30 per 100,000 people.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kumar said the department will be releasing new reports on suicides among Indigenous communities in the near future, and that will be based in part on census data from 1991 and 2006. </span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 15:01:02 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/canada-isnt-keeping-track-of-suicides-in-indigenous-communitiesDemocrats may have trouble taking back congress in 2018, poll findshttps://news.vice.com/story/democrats-may-have-trouble-taking-back-congress-in-2018-poll-finds
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite President Donald Trump’s </span><a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/six-months-in-trump-is-historically-unpopular/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">record</span></a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/polling/president-trump-least-popular-president-100day/2017/04/27/16999012-27d9-11e7-928e-3624539060e8_page.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">unpopularity</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — his approval rating stands at about </span><a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">38 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — a </span><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/midterm-preference-democrats-anti-trump-motivation-poll/story?id=48702378"><span style="font-weight: 400;">new poll</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from ABC News and the Washington Post indicates that, while voters don’t like him, he’s not having an outsized influence on how they plan to vote in the midterms. </span></p>
<p>Just over half of registered voters said that Trump would not be a factor in how they planned to vote in the 2018 congressional elections, with 20 percent saying they’d vote to support him and 24 percent saying they’d vote against.</p>
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<p>That leaves a four-point margin between those who are voting to support Trump and those who are voting to oppose, which is less than it was leading up to the 2010 and 2014 midterms. Leading up to both of those elections, 27 percent of voters said that they’d pick Congressional candidates to oppose President Barack Obama. In 2006, 35 percent of voters said they’d vote to oppose President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>And Republicans are more likely to vote to support Trump than Democrats are to oppose: 52 percent of registered Republicans said they’d vote to back Trump while only 41 percent of Dems said they’d vote to oppose him.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the majority of voters do want a Democratic majority in Congress in 2018 — but by a margin that is widest among all adults and thins as voting likelihood increases. Fifty three percent of the general population say they’d like to see a Democratic majority in Congress act as a check on Trump, while 38 percent said they wanted a Republican Congress to support Trump’s agenda. But among likely voters, only 50 percent said they wanted Dems in Congress to oppose the president, and 41 said they wanted Republicans there to support him. The margin shrinks from 14 points among the general population to 9 points among likely voters.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In another recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 37 percent of respondents said they thought that the Democratic Party “stood for something” — the majority see the Democrats as only standing against Trump. And according to a Bloomberg poll released yesterday, Hillary Clinton’s popularity has declined since the election — making her the </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-popularity-poll_us_596e5bc5e4b0000eb1967c73"><span style="font-weight: 400;">first president in 25 years</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to become less popular after losing the election, and </span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-18/finally-a-poll-trump-will-like-clinton-even-more-unpopular"><span style="font-weight: 400;">even less popular than Trump</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p>
<p>Even with a deeply unpopular Republican-led government, the Democrats may still be fighting an uphill battle to take back control of Congress in 2018.</p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 12:00:12 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/democrats-may-have-trouble-taking-back-congress-in-2018-poll-findsNuns are standing in the way of a massive Pennsylvania pipelinehttps://news.vice.com/story/nuns-are-standing-in-the-way-of-a-massive-pennsylvania-pipeline
<p><b></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">At the edge of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River, stands a trellis in a clearing in a cornfield. The trellis serves as an alter in a recently dedicated open-air chapel on land owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, an order of Catholic nuns that has considered this “sacred ground” for nearly a century.</span></p>
<p>And it may soon be torn up to install part of a $3 billion natural gas pipeline.</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl is currently hearing arguments regarding the use of eminent domain to build the 37-mile Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, which will connect natural gas production in northeast Pennsylvania to the existing Transco natural gas pipeline near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. Williams Corporation, the Tulsa-based energy company building the pipeline, spent nearly three years lobbying residents and business owners along the proposed path to lease or sell their land to the company so it could build and maintain the pipeline.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And it’s now hoping to win eminent domain over the remaining land owned by people who have refused to cooperate with the construction. Schmehl’s decision is expected later this week.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Once complete, this project will create a crucial connection between Pennsylvania and consuming markets all along the East Coast, delivering enough natural gas to fuel more than 7 million homes,” Williams spokesperson Christopher Stockton said in an email. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Several Amish and Mennonite families would be impacted by the proposed pipeline, which would run under their property. Even though many of the families have either sold or agreed to lease portions of their land to Williams, there is growing concern over the logistics of maintaining the farmland during and after construction.</span></p>
<p>“Who&#8217;s taking care of the pigs and taking care of the cows?” said Mark Clatterbuck, a co-founder of Lancaster Against Pipelines, a local non-profit comprised of local residents who are “unwilling to believe Williams corporation&#8217;s insistence that the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline would benefit their community,” per the group’s website.</p>
<p>For its part, Williams says it has tried to accommodate local residents unhappy with construction plans.</p>
<p>“We have made more than 400 route adjustments to more than 60 percent of the total route as a result of stakeholder feedback,” Stockton said.</p>
<p>But the Adorers of the Blood of Christ has refused to so much as meet with Williams, according to Stockton.</p>
<p>“We believe that all land is sacred because it was created by God, and we do not want something like a pipeline that will be carrying fossil fuels to go through on our property,” says Sister Janet McCann, who has been with the order for 38 years. “It goes against what our values are.”</p>
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<img width="768" height="625" src="https://news.vice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/nuns-in-court.jpeg" class="img-main" alt="" /> <figcaption>Some of the nuns in court. (Photo via Ann Neumann)<span class="credit"></span></figcaption>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adorers’ land is managed by a tenant farmer, whose farming — the crops provide a source of revenue for the nuns — will be only temporarily affected, according to Williams, which says it has provided others with compensation for any anticipated impact on crops.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Use of the property will not change once the pipeline is installed, since the pipe will be installed 3-5 feet underground,” Stockton said. “In other words, the property can continue to be farmed.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even if Schmehl rules in favor of Williams this week, the dispute will be far from over. Clatterbuck says that more than 1,000 people have pledged to engage in non-violent direct action should eminent domain be granted. Lancaster Against Pipelines has been hosting weekly training sessions in coordination with Greenpeace over the last few months to prepare local residents.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The community is bracing for a demonstration of “peaceful, non-violent, direct action” Clatterbuck says.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The training was inspired in part by his own experience in North Dakota last summer. Clatterbuck, a professor of Native American religion at Montclair State University, participated in the non-violent protests against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline there with one of his children and says that the protests gave him insight into organizing the effort in his own town.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The power that local communities hold in their hands to stop projects like this… the sheer sort of power and effectiveness of a grassroots movement that became so huge, was inspiring,” he said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even the nuns are preparing for immediate seizure of their property if eminent domain is granted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We believe that it&#8217;s our responsibility to continue to provide great stewardship [of the land],” Sister Janet said. “We want to provide that for the future generations to come.”</span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 11:53:38 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/nuns-are-standing-in-the-way-of-a-massive-pennsylvania-pipelineNorth Korean defector may have been abducted and returned to Pyongyanghttps://news.vice.com/story/north-korean-defector-may-have-been-abducted-and-returned-to-pyongyang
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">South Korean authorities are </span><a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/search1/2603000000.html?cid=AEN20170719009600315"><span style="font-weight: 400;">investigating</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the possibility that a North Korean defector who fled to Seoul and became a reality television star has been kidnapped by Pyongyang. Officials said Wednesday that they were made aware of Lim Ji-hyun’s return home after a video was posted online where she denounced her time in the south as “hellish.”</span></p>
<p>Lim Ji-hyun left North Korea for China where she married a Chinese national. Having ended the arranged marriage, Lim arrived in Seoul in January 2014 and soon found fame as a TV star on talk shows and reality television, including shows that featured defectors from the North.</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, on July 15, a video </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1610&amp;v=oexVR8M3ME8"><span style="font-weight: 400;">appeared on YouTube</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> showing Lim back in Pyongyang. In it, she says her return to the hermit kingdom was voluntary and that she had travelled to the South, “led by fantasy that I could eat well and make a lot of money.”</span></p>
<div id="video-oexVR8M3ME8" class="arve-wrapper" data-arve-mode="normal" data-arve-provider="youtube" style="max-width: 720px;" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject"><span class="arve-embed-container"><meta itemprop="embedURL" content="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oexVR8M3ME8?iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=1&amp;autoplay=0"><iframe allowfullscreen class="arve-iframe fitvidsignore" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oexVR8M3ME8?iv_load_policy=3&#038;modestbranding=1&#038;rel=0&#038;autohide=1&#038;playsinline=1&#038;autoplay=0" height="480" width="853"></iframe></span></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the video Lim is interviewed by another defector who has returned to North Korea, and she introduces herself as Jeon Hye-Sung. Lim says her time in Seoul was “</span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-defector-lim-ji-hyeon-south-police-investigation-abduction-kim-jong-un-pyongyang-a7848121.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">hellish</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,” and criticizes South Korea as a “country where everything is judged by money,” adding: “I was haunted by physical and psychological pain although I worked my butt off at bars and other places.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lim says she is back “in the motherland” and has moved back in with her parents. However authorities in the Seoul are </span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40640047"><span style="font-weight: 400;">now investigating</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> whether the star was abducted after she travelled to China in April.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">By all accounts, defector Lim Ji-hyun was living large, enjoying her newfound fame, even had her own online fan club<a href="https://t.co/nQbzI8w2RE">https://t.co/nQbzI8w2RE</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Noon in Korea (@NoonInKorea) <a href="https://twitter.com/NoonInKorea/status/887451135572942851">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Police in Seoul, where Lim lived after she defected, are now </span><a href="http://news.joins.com/article/21768366?cloc=joongang|article|recommend"><span style="font-weight: 400;">scouring</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> her financial records, bank accounts and phone records to try and ascertain if the defector really moved back to North Korea of her own accord.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Korean media </span><a href="http://news.joins.com/article/21768366?cloc=joongang|article|recommend"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reports</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that at her 3-month defector orientation meeting, she was classified as “not to be concerned” meaning authorities there did not fear her returning to Pyongyang.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Most defectors, however, wish to bring remaining family members to SK via China. Why her friends think she was possibly lured to China.</p>
<p>&mdash; Noon in Korea (@NoonInKorea) <a href="https://twitter.com/NoonInKorea/status/887375112118444032">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some other defectors fear Lim was lured back to China under the illusion that she may have been able to help her family flee the country. Lee Hyun-ho, a refugee who currently lives in Canada, </span><a href="http://www.rfa.org/korean/weekly_program/canada_now/canadanow-07182017100406.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that it was very obvious Lim’s interviews were forced, and that she was deliberately targeted by North Korea as a warning to other defectors starring in South Korean TV shows.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Television shows like those Lim starred in are </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/22/flashdrives-for-freedom-north-korea-20000-usb-sticks"><span style="font-weight: 400;">smuggled</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> into North Korea and authorities there fear that this inspires others to defect to the South.</span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 11:52:16 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/north-korean-defector-may-have-been-abducted-and-returned-to-pyongyangNetflix keeps growing even though you still use a friend’s loginhttps://news.vice.com/story/netflix-keeps-growing-even-though-you-still-use-a-friends-login
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Netflix’s corporate office proudly revealed Tuesday it&#8217;s been doing a binge of its own this quarter — for new subscribers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That was the big takeaway from the company’s latest quarterly report on sales and profits, and the numbers were very good: Netflix said that it added more than 5 million subscribers in the period from April to June, obliterating Wall Street expectations for a mere 3 million.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s thanks to the strength of Netflix’s programming, which also helps explain why the company is currently burning through cash at a startling rate. The company reports spending $6.9 billion in cash on streaming content in 2016, a figure that could still grow another 25 percent this year, according to Goldman Sachs&#8217; estimates.</span></p>
<p>That spending also helps explains why, for all the excitement around Netflix, it isn&#8217;t making that much money. The company reported a second-quarter profit of only $65.6 million, or 15 cents a share, on revenue of $2.8 billion.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the moment, nobody seems particularly worried about that ratio. And for now, at least, investors are willing to give Netflix the benefit of the doubt under the theory that the more users it acquires now, the more powerful it will be down the line.</span></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a note to clients following Netflix’s report, Goldman Sachs analysts specifically noted that company’s torrid spending “raises the risk profile” on Netflix. But Goldman nevertheless raised its revenue, profit, and stock-price targets for the company this year, saying, “We believe that Netflix remains on track in building out an unmatched global entertainment platform.”</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are a few other key details from Netflix’s big quarter:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8211; Aside from growing in raw numbers, Netflix’s subscriber base is also becoming </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netflix-results-research-idUSKBN1A316M"><span style="font-weight: 400;">much more global</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in composition. The company now has 52.03 million international subscribers, slightly more than its U.S. total for the first time in history.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8211; Netflix shares jumped more than 13 percent Tuesday, closing out at $183.60 a share — a gain of nearly 50 percent this year. Over the last ten years, Netflix is up a staggering 6,200 percent.</span></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8211; With all the focus on subscriber growth, Netflix investors essentially ignored the yardsticks that traditionally get more attention in earnings releases, at least in part because the company’s quarterly revenue and profit clocked in as expected. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8211; Hollywood traditional networks and studios are increasingly feeling the pinch of bidding against the free-spending Netflix for popular content — hence the sheer cattiness ofits competitors in </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/business/media/tv-executives-survey-relationships-and-ratings-and-snub-netflix.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">this New York Times dispatch</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the ATX Television Festival in Austin last month.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally, this improbable tidbit caught our attention in the numbers Netflix released yesterday: 3.8 million people still subscribe to mail-in DVDs from the company. And they’re probably screening those for their friends, too. </span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 11:14:03 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/netflix-keeps-growing-even-though-you-still-use-a-friends-loginTrump announces plan to nominate ""John Huntsman” as ambassador to Russiahttps://news.vice.com/story/trump-announces-plan-to-nominate-john-huntsman-as-ambassador-to-russia
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The White House announced Tuesday it intends to nominate former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. to be the new U.S. ambassador to Russia. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Governor John Huntsman (sic) has had a distinguished career as a politician, diplomat, and businessman,” the Office of the Press Secretary said in a statement Tuesday that misspelled Huntsman’s first name. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“His robust record of public service includes service as U.S. Ambassador to China and to Singapore, Deputy United States Trade Representative, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development,” the statement said. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Like Trump, Huntsman is a billionaire whose family chemical company, Huntsman Corporation, has </span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielasirtori/2016/12/05/meet-billionaire-scion-jon-huntsman-jr-possible-secretary-of-state-for-trump/#5f646a1c1126"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reportedly</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> had numerous business dealings in Russia. And like many of Trump’s relationships, theirs has been fraught with tension, insults, and rude tweets.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jon Huntsman called to see me. I said no, he gave away our country to China! <a href="https://twitter.com/JonHuntsman">@JonHuntsman</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/167405659057426433">February 9, 2012</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And though Huntsman formally endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election despite “fundamental philosophical differences” between them, he later urged Trump to drop out of the race after the “Access Hollywood” tapes were released. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“In a campaign cycle that has been nothing but a race to the bottom — at such a critical moment for our nation — and with so many who have tried to be respectful of a record primary vote, the time has come for Governor Pence to lead the ticket,” Huntsman </span><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/4444721-155/after-video-huntsman-says-it-is"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the Salt Lake Tribune after the audio of Trump discussing grabbing a woman “by the pussy” became public.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Trump administration still has of 114 roles out of 124 in the State Department to fill, according to the Washington Post citing </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">data</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the Partnership for Public Service. Ninety-one of those positions still don’t have a nominee. </span></p>
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 02:00:31 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/trump-announces-plan-to-nominate-john-huntsman-as-ambassador-to-russiaWhite House confirms Trump had a second, undisclosed meeting with Putin at the G20https://news.vice.com/story/white-house-confirms-trump-had-a-second-secret-meeting-with-putin
<p>President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a second, undisclosed meeting that lasted roughly an hour at the G-20 summit in Hamburg last week.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The White House confirmed that the two spoke on the sidelines of the G-20 dinner to several news outlets, including CNN, NBC, and Reuters.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to the Washington Post, which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-had-undisclosed-hour-long-meeting-with-putin-at-g20-summit/2017/07/18/39c18dd4-6bd0-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-world%252Bnation&amp;wpmk=1">quotes</a> a senior administration official, Trump got up from his table halfway through the meal and sat in an empty seat next to Putin.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The men were joined only by Putin&#8217;s Russian translator — a breach of national security protocol, Ian Bremmer <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-07-18/bremmer-on-trump-putin-meeting-charlie-rose-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en-GB&amp;q=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-07-18/bremmer-on-trump-putin-meeting-charlie-rose-video&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1500503303846000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGl9UTgm4KcZduwsE8jO4vHi-2BTA">told</a> Charlie Rose on Bloomberg.</p>
<p dir="ltr">&#8220;Never in my life as a political scientist have I seen two countries — major countries — with a constellation of national interests that are as dissonant, while the two leaders seem to be doing everything possible to make nice and be close to each other,&#8221; Ian Bremmer told Charlie Rose on Bloomberg Tuesday.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">White House official confirms to <a href="https://twitter.com/kwelkernbc">@kwelkernbc</a> Trump and Putin spoke privately on the margins of a G-20 dinner. Was previously undisclosed. <a href="https://t.co/hqULLe2KYS">https://t.co/hqULLe2KYS</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Dafna Linzer (@DafnaLinzer) <a href="https://twitter.com/DafnaLinzer/status/887423886815625217">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sen. Chris Coons says source told him Trump got up from his seat at the dinner table, went over to Putin, spoke with him for nearly an hour.</p>
<p>&mdash; Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) <a href="https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/887434739627511808">July 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
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Tue, 18 Jul 2017 22:37:09 GMThttps://news.vice.com/story/white-house-confirms-trump-had-a-second-secret-meeting-with-putin